A purported conversation between travel vlogger Jyoti Malhotra and a Pakistani intelligence officer has surfaced, highlighting the former’s link with Islamabad, as the police in India continue to probe the YouTuber for allegedly spying for the neighbouring country.
Malhotra, who lived in Haryana’s Hisar and ran a YouTube channel called ‘Travel with Jo’, was arrested last week. Sources suggest she was in constant touch with Ali Hasan, who worked for the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the spy agency of Pakistan that acts as a fulcrum in their military-terror nexus. The two used to talk a lot, they said.
Officials have now found a WhatsApp conversation between the 33-year-old YouTuber and Hasan. One of the chats showed Malhotra telling Hasan, “Get me married in Pakistan”, which hinted at her emotional connection with Islamabad.
Read: ‘Spy’ YouTuber’s Bangladesh Connection Emerges, She Was Planning A Visit
Reports suggest that the WhatsApp chats also revealed several coded conversations between the two, specifically those related to undercover operations of India.
During the investigation, the police have found information about four bank accounts belonging to Malhotra, said police sources. Transactions from Dubai were also found in one of the accounts.
The agencies are now going through all of her bank accounts to find out where she was receiving money.
Malhotra, who has over a lakh followers on Instagram, had visited Pakistan twice, during which he had come into contact with Rahim, an official at the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi. Rahim had later introduced her to the Pakistani intelligence operatives.
Read: The Woman Who Betrayed India: Diplomat-Spy Madhuri Gupta’s Fall From Grace
Back in India, she had remained in touch with her Pakistani handlers and allegedly shared sensitive information on the Indian Army’s movement with them.
Her father had initially claimed that she had made the trip to shoot videos in Pakistan. Changing his version recently, he said she had informed him of going to Delhi, and not Pakistan.
Malhotra is among the dozen-odd individuals who have been arrested in the past week for alleged espionage amid heightened surveillance in the wake of fresh India-Pakistan tensions. Others include a student, a security guard, and a businessman. These suspects were arrested from across Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh.
